Columns : The Federal Voice

Resolve to Support Law Enforcement

The public, politicians, and the media need to change the way they speak about and act toward law enforcement officers.

January 04, 2017
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by Jon Adler

With the onset of 2017, here are 10 New Year's resolutions for cop-bashing politicians and media to contemplate on behalf of law enforcement. Please note that this does not apply to the stand-up politicians that consistently support cops.

No one dies in the line of duty. As former Attorney General John Ashcroft recently stated in his capacity as the Chairman of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF), "The way to honor the fallen is to stop the falling." We endured a horrific year losing too many heroes to fatal assassination-style attacks and this needs to end. Politicians, the media, and the public need to do everything they can to prevent the murder of law enforcement officers.

Politicians must advocate for new-found respect for officers' verbal commands. Thanks to the inflammatory reporting of the news media, law enforcement verbal commands have been dismissed as irrelevant. Anyone with gray hair will tell you that back in the day, listening to an officer's directives wasn't negotiable. When subjects comply with officer commands, we don't have to call for an ambulance. Politicians should be demanding that data be collected for all non-compliant subject encounters and incidents of resisting arrest.

Stop scape-goating law enforcement for all the problems in low-income, high-crime areas. The problems plaguing our poorer communities are not caused by police abuses. Cop-bashing politicians continue to ignore the causes for the cycle of poverty and despair in our minority communities and how the presence of violent gangs fuels this cycle. From a global perspective, any low-income area will drive the violent crime, irrespective of race.

Let's make sure our nation's guardians are properly equipped. This means politicians need to support the full implementation of the 1033 program and empowering the chiefs to request what they need and not the mayors. Let's make sure we get our funding priorities right and that every uniformed officer—local, state, and federal—is issued a TASER. When our task force assets pursue violent criminals, each team should have a Range-R through-the-wall radar device to minimize their exposure to a fatal ambush.

Stop commuting the sentences of the peddlers of death; drug traffickers are inherently violent. According to the Center for Disease Control's latest report, there were 52,404 drug-induced fatalities in 2015. That is more than four times the number of fatalities attributed to gunfire. Dope peddlers do not bring good will and Hallmark moments. The fatal product they peddle wrecks lives, destroys families, and kills people nationwide. The cop-bashers should abandon their fatal notion that drug traffickers are non-violent.

Cop-bashing politicians need to withdraw their hands from officers' paychecks and find another means to fund their wasteful spending. The mounting deficit is not attributable to the brave men and women who risk their lives to defend our citizenry and uphold the rule of law. Law enforcement officers are wage earners and pay their fair share of income taxes every two weeks. Those who make the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our great nation make their payment in blood. Don't siphon away the hard-earned pay and benefits of law enforcement officers to fuel other programs.

Cop-bashing politicians must cease their efforts to create additional barriers for officers who need to obtain cyber-based information in a timely manner. Contrary to the mythology put forth by the bashers, officers are not juggling donuts while spying on Americans to pass the time. All law enforcement agencies have internal affairs and other components charged with investigating abusive practices. Check their score cards and you'll see we haven't gone cyber-rogue. Innocent lives are put at great risk when politicians make it more difficult for officers to obtain critical information.

Authorize and provide liability protection for state and local officers to enforce immigration detainers and help capture and deport violent criminal aliens permanently.

Support the civil asset forfeiture program. These funds are needed to support local and state law enforcement participation in joint task forces. Draining funding from joint law enforcement operations only serves to weaken task force assets. If the joint task forces are drained, violent criminals will roam free.

Please light a blue candle during National Police Week in honor of our fallen heroes and their families. It's time to stop the bashing, start the honoring, and respect the defenders of our democracy.

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